1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photographing apparatus for obtaining an image through photographing, a method for controlling the photographing apparatus, and a computer-readable recording medium containing a program for causing a computer to carry out the controlling method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various techniques have been proposed for providing desirable image quality of the face of a person in an image taken with a digital camera. Such techniques include, for example, a technique of setting an appropriate exposure condition for photographing a person when a person is contained in an image to be taken (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-215404), a technique of controlling exposure based on resulted photometric data of a face in an image and resulted photometric data of the entire image (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-107555), and a technique of controlling flash emission to achieve red-eye reduction based on a result of face detection in an image to be taken (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-107567). Further, a technique has been proposed, in which images are taken without flash emission and with preliminary flash emission, and a face region is detected from each of the two images. Then, a light intensity of the flash is controlled based on a difference in luminance between the face regions in the two images (see U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20060044422).
In the technique described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20060044422, however, the light intensity of the flash is uniformly controlled to provide a predetermined target brightness of the face. Therefore, the brightness of the face in the obtained image may be unnatural depending on the skin color of the person. For example, a target brightness which is appropriate for a person with dark skin and provides a desirable image with clear details of the face may be too light for a person with light skin and may cause white out of the skin region in the image. On the other hand, a target brightness which is appropriate for a person with light skin and provides a desirable image with darker skin color may be too dark for a person with dark skin and may result in unclear details of the face.